A US woman who was adopted at birth has received the ultimate birthday gift: meeting her birth family for the first time.
Through a genealogy site, Christine Shepherd from California has met her three younger sisters and will soon meet her father.
Shepherd took the DNA test in January 2018 to learn more about her health history, however a month after taking the test the company contacted her with news of a first cousin on her mother’s side.
Although Shepherd had never known her biological mother, she knew she had gone to Vellejo to give birth while Shepherd’s father was in the military, and immediately put her up for adoption in 1965.
After coming into contact with her cousin, they matched that story to the woman’s aunt, who died 16 years prior. The cousin told Shepherd that towards the end of her life, her mother had tried to find her.
“She just wanted to tell me that she loved me,” Shepherd told ABC News.
In February this year, she received another message from the genealogy company notifying her of another relative – this time, on her father’s side.
It was another cousin, who immediately put Shepherd into contact with three sisters, with the four of them quickly hitting it off.
“I’ve been an only child all my life, so to have this wonderful group of women who are so loving and caring is so phenomenal,” Shepherd said.
“We just literally hung out and talked because it was such an easy, seamless situation. It was just like three sisters hanging out.”
Shepherd met two of her younger sisters in her California home, where they went through photos together for hours. She will be meeting her father and youngest sister when they celebrate her 54th birthday.
“There’s a party and everyone’s going to meet me,” she said. “They have family and friends and their church, so apparently it’s a big to do.”
“For my 54th, I got a full family. Not many people get that.”
